School district wants 10 percent pay cut for teachers and staff to save jobs

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The Lodi Unified School District is proposing its 3,100 employees take a pay cut of up to 10 percent, district officials have confirmed.

District negotiators and union leaders met last week to discuss a potential pay cut or furlough plan for all employees, including high-ranking officials, that could trim millions from the district’s estimated $25 million budget shortfall and curb a proposed elimination of 500 jobs, Trustee President Richard Jones said.

“I won’t get into specifics, but negotiations have begun,” Jones said

Salaries account for 90 percent of Lodi Unified’s $273 million budget, and officials have determined that the majority of budget cuts must be made through payroll.

Trustees have approved a layoff plan of 217 teachers and are expected to approve the layoff of 109 full-time positions at a future meeting as well.

Trustees say jobs could be spared, however, if employees are willing to accept a furlough or pay cut. Trustees have already approved a 10 percent reduction of their $750 monthly stipend and have entered negotiations regarding Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer’s contract, Jones said.

Lodi Unified personnel director and lead negotiator Mike McKilligan would not comment on negotiations. Based on the $245 million district payroll, however, a 10-percent across-the-board cut would add up to $24.5 million, district officials confirmed.

“If we could save all of our employees’ jobs, … I would imagine it would take somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 percent to 10 percent,” said Trustee Ken Davis, who declined to comment further.

Union representatives are approaching layoff negotiations with extreme caution and say they are willing to negotiate only because schools would be hurt badly by such a dramatic reduction in teachers, counselors, custodians and other support staff.

President of the 1,500-member teachers union Sue Kenmotsu said “nothing is off the table.” However, a pay cut should be the last resort for the district, she said, because thousands of dollars would be stripped from employees’ checks each year.

For district Superintendent Cathy Nichols-Washer’s $230,000 salary, a 10 percent pay cut would total $23,000. Teachers currently make $37,000 to $79,000 annually, so their checks would be slashed to $33,300 to $71,100.

Board members would be docked $75 out of their $750 monthly stipend at a 10 percent cut.

“We want to see what the impact of the state budget will be, whatever it is, before we can move forward,” Kenmotsu said. “It takes years, decades to make up a 10 percent salary cut.”

Kenmotsu said it is difficult for a union to request any percentage of a proposed pay cut be restored when the district becomes more fiscally solvent because there’s no telling when the district would be able to afford it.

District officials on both sides of the negotiations say the entire process has been difficult. Some say they never thought education would be hit the way it has by the state’s foundering economy.

Trustee Joe Nava did not comment on specific details of negotiations. However, the retired teacher who also worked as a union representative in Stockton Unified said this is the first time he’s seen a pay cut or furlough proposed in more than 40 years as an educator.

“It would have never been considered. Not in education,” Nava said. “When you have all the protection of labor unions, it’s never been necessary. But when the district doesn’t have the money, what are you going to do?”

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